One in three mobile phones to come with NFC by 2017

Between 2012 and 2017 the installed base of NFC-enabled handsets will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 65% to reach 2.1bn units, according to new research from Berg Insight. “The penetration rate for NFC across all handset segments will similarly increase to approximately 32% by 2017.”

BERG: NFC phones made up 3.3% of all handsets in use by the end of 2012

NFC mobile wallet services have now been commercially deployed in 13 countries, up from six at the end of 2011, according to a new study by Berg Insight. Most are still available to only a very small number of consumers, however, but “this will change substantially during the next few years due to the massive rollouts of NFC-enabled phones, NFC-ready POS terminals and TSM solutions.”

There will also be around 140 companies that use a TSM solution in commercially live NFC mobile wallet services worldwide at the end of 2013, up from 57 at the end of 2012, Berg says. “The most active region for TSM projects is currently Asia Pacific, followed by Europe, North America and the Middle East.”

“The market for NFC-enabled mobile phones reached a breakthrough in late 2011 and accelerated further in 2012 as new NFC handsets were introduced by all leading handset vendors except Apple,” the analysts say.

“Berg Insight estimates that total NFC handset sales grew 300 percent to 140 million units worldwide in 2012. The global installed base of NFC-enabled handsets reached 170 million units in 2012, which corresponds to approximately 3.3% of all mobile handsets in use.”

Global shipments of NFC-ready POS terminals, meanwhile, doubled to an estimated 3.9m units in 2012 and Berg forecasts that the global installed base will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46.1% from 6.7m units in 2012 to 44.6m units by 2017.

“The penetration rate of NFC-ready POS terminals is projected to be an estimated 87% in the European Union plus Switzerland and Norway by the end of 2017,” the analysts add. “The penetration rate in North America and Latin America will be 82% and 68% in the same year respectively, whereas penetration in the rest of world will reach 39%.”